New Jersey marijuana law must be not too loose, not too tight

APA young marijuana plant
In California and Colorado, loosely written medicinal marijuana laws have provided reefer for all. Dispensaries have popped up all over, and the two states have turned into Harold and Kumar movies with tens of thousands of pot-puffing extras.

The marijuana, originally intended for patients with cancer and other serious, painful conditions, is being dispensed to anyone who can find a friendly doctor to prescribe pot for (real/imagined/faked) headaches or anxiety or a really painful hangnail.

Meanwhile, officials struggle to return the laws to their original intent.

Here’s one thing we’ve learned after Star-Ledger reporter Sue Livio’s recent series on medical marijuana laws in other places: New Jersey doesn’t want to become another California or Colorado, which are too permissive.

But New Jersey doesn’t want to emulate New Mexico, either, because that state is too restrictive. Patients who legitimately need help can’t get it. There are only five licensed centers in New Mexico, and their supplies sometimes are limited.

Why pass a law legalizing medicinal marijuana, then set up roadblocks for patients who need it? That’s a question New Jersey must face because, in some ways, our law — which goes into effect next month — is more restrictive than New Mexico’s.

Some provisions can be addressed by those administering the New Jersey law, but legislators will have to amend the law to fix other problems.

For instance, New Jersey’s law calls for at least six dispensaries. Six won’t be enough, so the Department of Health and Senior Services, charged with monitoring access, should allow for more. That’s an easy fix: Grant more licenses, open more dispensaries.

Other obstacles to access must be remedied by law.

New Jersey patients can designate only one caretaker to pick up the marijuana — a restriction that doesn’t apply to other prescriptions and shouldn’t apply to this one. The law should be tweaked to allow dispensaries to deliver, too, just like the local pharmacy.

In the end, the easiest way to assure access is to allow patients to grow their own — not in unlimited quantities, but enough to meet their needs. Our law doesn’t allow it, but it should.

Cautious New Jersey legislators learned from the mistakes of other states, like California and Colorado, and smartly limited marijuana to patients with “debilitating medical conditions.” Now they must make sure those patients can get it.